New SAT writing workbook

Peterson’s
New SAT Writing
Workbook
Margaret Moran
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ISBN 0-7689-1714-X
Printed in the United States of America

10987654321 060504
First Edition
CONTENTS
Introduction: About the Writing Section on the New SAT I
Using Peterson’s New SAT Writing Workbook to Improve
Your Score 1
A Word about the Future 2
PART I Practicing Your Essay Writing Skills
Chapter 1: About the Essay on the SAT I 4
What the Essay Assesses 4
Essay Topics 5
The Length of the Essay 5
Scoring the Essay 6
The Scoring Rubric 6
Planning Your Time 9
Check Your Writing Skills 11
Writing as the Only Preparation 11
Practical Advice 12
Check Off 12
Chapter 2: Dissecting the Writing Prompt 13
The Directions 13
The Writing Prompt 14
The Assignment 14
Check Your Writing Skills 16
Analyzing More Prompts 17
Check Your Writing Skills 18
Practical Advice 23
Check Off 23
Answers and Explanations 23
Chapter 3: About Writing the Essay 27

The Essay: A Review 27
The Writing Process 29
Writing an “Excellent” Essay 34
The SAT I Essay 39
Using the Rubric to Improve Your Writing 41
Practical Advice 42
Check Off 43
Chapter 4: Writing Practice Essays 44
Pacing Guide for Writing the Essay 44
Using the Practice Essays 44
Practice Essay 1 45
Practice Essay 2 52
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Practice Essay 3 59
Practice Essay 4 66
Practice Essay 5 73
Chapter 5: The Top 10 Rules of Effective Writing 80
Using the Practice Items 81
Rule 1: Use Action Verbs and the Active Voice 81
Check Your Writing Skills 82
Rule 2: Use Precise Words 83
Check Your Writing Skills 85
Rule 3: Say What You Mean 86
Check Your Writing Skills 88
Rule 4: Maintain Your Tone 89
Check Your Writing Skills 90
Rule 5: Use Direct Language 91
Check Your Writing Skills 92
Rule 6: Use Concise Language 93
Check Your Writing Skills 95

Rule 7: Improve Sentences 97
Check Your Writing Skills 98
Rule 8: Develop Sentence Variety 100
Check Your Writing Skills 101
Rule 9: Use Standard Rules of English for Capitalization . . 103
Rule 10: Use Standard Rules of English for Punctuation . . 104
Check Your Writing Skills 107
Answers and Explanations 109
Check Your Writing Skills 113
Answers and Explanations 125
More Practice 128
Check Off 131
PART II Practicing Standard English for Writing
Chapter 6: About the Multiple-Choice Section 134
Basic Information about the Multiple-Choice Section 135
General Test-Taking Strategies for the Multiple-Choice
Questions 135
Educated Guessing 136
Planning Your Time 137
Using the Practice Items 138
Analyzing the Question Types 139
Check Your Writing Skills 142
Check Your Writing Skills 145
Check Your Writing Skills 152
Answers and Explanations 152
More Practice 156
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Answers and Explanations 160

Check Off 163
Chapter 7: About Identifying Sentence Errors 164
What Is Standard English? 164
Using the Practice Items 164
Verbs 165
Check Your Writing Skills 172
Pronouns 174
Check Your Writing Skills 176
Modifiers and Comparisons 177
Check Your Writing Skills 179
Idioms 180
Check Your Writing Skills 181
Contractions and Possessives 182
Check Your Writing Skills 183
Usage Problems 184
Check Your Writing Skills 195
Answers and Explanations 196
More Practice 199
Check Off 202
Chapter 8: About Improving Sentences 203
Using the Practice Items 203
Revising Incomplete and Run-On Sentences 204
Check Your Writing Skills 207
Revising Ambiguous and Confusing Sentences 209
Check Your Writing Skills 214
Answers and Explanations 218
More Practice 222
Check Off 225
Chapter 9: About Improving Paragraphs 226
Using the Practice Essays 226

The Anatomy of an Essay 226
Paragraphs and Essays 231
Check Your Writing Skills 240
Answers and Explanations 243
Check Your Writing Skills 245
Answers and Explanations: 247
More Practice 248
Check Off 252
Part III Putting It All Together
Practice Exercise Set 1 255
Practical Advice 256
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Writing the Essay 256
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 1 257
Identifying Sentence Errors 259
Improving Sentences 262
Improving Paragraphs 267
Practice Exercise Set 1: Answers and Explanations 273
Self-Evaluation Rubric 274
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 276
Answers and Explanations 277
Practice Exercise Set 2 287
Practical Advice 288
Writing the Essay 288
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 2 289
Identifying Sentence Errors 291
Improving Sentences 294
Improving Paragraphs 299

Practice Exercise Set 2: Answers and Explanations 305
Self-Evaluation Rubric 306
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 308
Answers and Explanations 309
Practice Exercise Set 3 317
Practical Advice 318
Writing the Essay 318
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 3 319
Identifying Sentence Errors 321
Improving Sentences 323
Improving Paragraphs 327
Practice Exercise Set 3: Answers and Explanations 331
Self-Evaluation Rubric 332
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 334
Answers and Explanations 335
Practice Exercise Set 4 343
Practical Advice 344
Writing the Essay 344
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 4 345
Identifying Sentence Errors 347
Improving Sentences 350
Improving Paragraphs 355
Practice Exercise Set 4: Answers and Explanations 359
Self-Evaluation Rubric 360
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 362
Answers and Explanations 363
CONTENTS
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Quick Reference Guide 372

Pacing Guide for Writing the Essay 372
Top 10 Rules of Effective Writing 372
Strategies for Answering Multiple-Choice Questions 373
CONTENTS
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Introduction
ABOUT THE WRITING SECTION ON THE
NEW SAT I
Beginning with the Spring 2005 administration of the SAT I, the
College Board added a Writing section to the test. Along with
changes to the Math section, the new Writing section is expected to
provide a better assessment of how prepared students are for college.
The basic facts about the new Writing section are the following:
The Writing section will consist of two parts:
• One student-produced essay
• Multiple-choice questions on grammar, usage, and word choice
The Writing section will be 50 minutes in length:
• 20 minutes for the essay
• 30 minutes for the multiple-choice questions
The scoring will be the same as the old SAT I and SAT II Writing
Subject Test:
• 200 to 800 scale
• 1 to 6 scale for the essay
• Use of a holistic approach to scoring the essay
The essay prompt will require you to
• Write a persuasive essay
The multiple-choice questions will ask you to
• Identify sentence errors

• Improve sentences
• Improve paragraphs
USING PETERSON’S NEW SAT WRITING WORKBOOK
TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE
Peterson’s New SAT Writing Workbook has been designed to give
you concentrated practice in the skills you will need for both the
essay and the multiple-choice questions on the Writing section of the
SAT I. Employ the following steps to get the most from using this
book:
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• Apply the test-taking strategies as you practice writing the timed
essays and answering the multiple-choice questions.
• Evaluate your essays against the rubric that is given. It is similar to
the one used for the actual test.
• Compare your multiple-choice responses with the Answer and
Explanations that follow the questions.
• Read all the answer explanations, even for questions you answered
correctly. You will be reinforcing and extending what you know—
and maybe learning something new.
• Use your practice sessions to pinpoint those areas that you need to
spend more time reviewing.
• Make a list of weak areas for review. Check them off as you
become more confident about each one.
If you take the time to read each chapter and complete each exer-
cise, including the simulated writing sections, you will increase your
test-taking skills and gain confidence for the real SAT I.
PETERSON’S SAT ESSAYEDGE
Peterson’s SAT EssayEdge service will offer an edit and critique of
your practice SAT essays. EssayEdge will tell you what score your
essays would have received, as well as give you a critique that

explains additional concepts and strategies needed to improve your
score on test day. This service is available at www.petersons.com/
satessayedge.
A WORD ABOUT THE FUTURE
The writing process, effective writing guidelines, and standard English
conventions that you are learning in Peterson’s New SAT Writing
Workbook apply to whatever you write, whenever you write. The
words whatever and whenever are important to remember. Using
this book to improve your writing for the SAT I is one reason to buy
it. It is equally important to use the writing process, strategies, and
standard English discussed in this book FOREVER. You will be
required to write once you are in college, and most likely, you will
be required to write in your workplace. The goal of this book is to
help you develop and practice your skills in writing clearly expressed,
coherent, and well-developed prose. Practice for the SAT I by using
the writing strategies and practice exercises in this book and you will
be on your way to turning these strategies into life-long habits.
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Part I
Practicing Your Essay
Writing Skills
In Chapters 1 through 5, you will find
• Basic information about the writing section on the SAT I
• An explanation of the scoring rubric
• Strategies for understanding writing prompts with exercises
for practice
• A review of the writing process
• Strategies for planning and writing the essay
• A sample writing guide to help you pace your writing

• Timed essays for practice
• 10 rules for effective writing, followed by exercises
Chapter 1
ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE SAT I
Your goals for this chapter are to learn the
• Basic information about the Writing section on the SAT I
• Elements of the scoring rubric
The Writing section of the SAT I assesses
• How clearly you can express your ideas when writing “on demand”
• How well you know and can apply the rules of standard written
English
“On demand,” according to the College Board, is the kind of writing
you will do in college on tests and in the workplace in memos, email
messages, or letters—short pieces of writing done quickly.
The term standard written English refers to the rules of
grammar, mechanics, and usage that you find in any English grammar
textbook. On the SAT I, you will show your skills with the conven-
tions of standard English by
• Writing your essay
• Recognizing and correcting errors
• Demonstrating an awareness of language through the revision of
others’ writing
The focus in Chapters 1 through 4 is on getting your ideas down on
paper. Chapter 5 reviews some basic grammar, mechanics, and usage
issues that can affect your writing. You will be reviewing and
practicing the skills and test-taking tips for identifying errors and
improving sentences and paragraphs in Chapters 6 through 9.
WHAT THE ESSAY ASSESSES
The essay question is included on the SAT I for an obvious rea-
son—to test your writing skills. To do well, you need to

• Explain your thinking about the topic
• Support your thinking with facts, examples, and ideas
• Organize your writing in a logical, effective manner
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• Communicate your ideas clearly, concisely, and effectively
• Prove your mastery of the conventions of standard written English
while doing all of the above
In other words, you must show that you can write well enough to
produce an essay that is acceptable to a college professor. Your
writing must demonstrate that you can
• Express and support an opinion or defend a position
• Use facts and examples in expressing your opinion or defending
your position
ESSAY TOPICS
The topic for the essay on the SAT I will require you to write a
persuasive essay. You will be asked to take a position and use
examples to support your position. The essay, however, will not
require any special subject matter knowledge on your part. You will
not be asked to write about whether global warming exists or
whether the United States trade deficit is good or bad for the
economy. The topic will be broad and general, such as agreeing or
disagreeing with the statement that change is a constant in society.
Because this is an essay, you will be asked to support your
opinion with examples from literature, art, music, history, science
and technology, current events, or your own experience and observa-
tion. As noted, you may use personal experience as evidence.
However, the more information you can bring to your topic from
outside yourself, the more well-rounded and knowledgeable you will
appear to the readers. That is, do not only use personal observations
like “I think ,”“Ifeel ,”“Itseems to me ”toprop up your

arguments. Use facts and data whenever you can.
THE LENGTH OF THE ESSAY
There is no required length for your essay. It is the quality, not the
quantity, that is important to the readers. Realistically, however, a
one-paragraph essay is unlikely to garner you a high mark because
you probably cannot develop a well-reasoned opinion and effectively
present it in one paragraph. An essay of three to five paragraphs with
several sentences in each paragraph is a good goal for your writing.
By following this model, you can set up your idea with an interesting
introduction, develop a soundly reasoned body, and provide a solid
conclusion. This means you will need to write between 200 and 250
words.
CHAPTER 1: ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE SAT I
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SCORING THE ESSAY
Your handwritten essays will be scanned and delivered to College
Board-trained readers over the Internet. The readers will review each
essay for its general, overall impression and score it using a scale
from 1 to 6. There is no right or wrong answer to an essay topic.
Each essay is read by two readers who are high school or college
teachers. They will not mark grammar, spelling, or punctuation
errors. However, they will consider such errors along with the
organization of your essay, the logical development of your argument,
your choice of words, and the consistency of your style—all the
elements that go into writing a good essay.
Your essay score will be reported in two ways. It will be
combined with the scaled score from the multiple-choice section and
reported within a range from 200 to 800. You will also receive a
subscore for your essay. As you know, each reader will give your

essay a score on a scale from 1 to 6 (see below for a detailed
description of this scale). These two scores are then added to give
you your subscore. For example, if one reader gives your essay a 6,
and the second reader gives it a 5, then your subscore will be 11.
The subscore will use a scale from 2 to 12.
One more word about scoring: The College Board cautions its
readers to ignore handwriting. However, if the reader can’t read what
you wrote, it is your loss, because the reader is forced to “ignore”
your ideas. So, write legibly. Even if you are excited about the topic
and hurry to get down all your ideas before the time is up, be careful.
Write so that someone not familiar with your handwriting can read it.
THE SCORING RUBRIC
The readers for the SAT I essays are trained by the College Board to
score essays holistically. This means that the scorers are looking at
the overall impression that an essay makes on them. They do not
expect you to write a perfect, polished composition in the 20
minutes you are allowed. However, the readers do consider how
successfully a writer was able to
• Organize the essay
• Logically develop ideas
• Use evidence to support ideas
• Use appropriate diction or word choice
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• Vary sentence structure
• Use correct grammar and punctuation
The readers award good scores to essays that are clear, interesting,
and correct.
Let’s take a closer look at what the scorers are looking for as

they read the essays.
An essay that receives a 6 will have the following characteristics:
These characteristics deal with the overall impression your essay
makes:
• Clarity and consistency throughout
• Virtually error-free (Notice that the scorers are not expecting
you to write a perfect essay. An occasional error is accept-
able.)
The readers are looking for your thesis, or the statement of your
main idea, and how well you establish the purpose of your essay:
• Insightful and effective addressing of the topic
The organization of your essay and development of your ideas are
basic elements that the scorers read for:
• Excellent organization
• Fully developed with appropriate examples, facts, and details
supporting your thesis
Readers assess your use of correct sentence structure and a variety
of sentence structures:
• Variety in sentence structure
This characteristic relates to your choice of words, or diction, to
convey your ideas:
• Breadth in vocabulary
Your overall use of correct grammar and usage is also evaluated:
• Excellent facility in language usage
An essay that receives a 5 will have the following characteristics:
• Good clarity and consistency
• Few errors and lapses in quality
• Effective addressing of the topic
CHAPTER 1: ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE SAT I
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• Good organization
• Adequate development with examples, facts, and details
supporting the thesis
• Some sentence variety
• Some breadth in vocabulary
• Facility in language usage
An essay that receives a 4 will have the following characteristics:
• Adequate clarity and consistency
• Some errors and lapses in quality
• Adequate addressing of the topic
• Adequate organization
• Some development with examples, facts, and details support-
ing the thesis
• Minimal variety in sentence structure
• Some errors in vocabulary
• Inconsistent facility in language usage; some errors in grammar
An essay that receives a 3 will have the following characteristics:
• Emerging competence
• Many errors
• Somewhat off the topic
• Insufficient organization
• Inadequate or insufficient support
• Errors in sentence structure
• Simplistic vocabulary; errors in diction
• Errors in grammar and other language usage
An essay that receives a 2 will have the following characteristics:
• Some incompetence
• Flaws throughout
• Inadequate treatment of the topic

• Poor organization
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• Lack of adequate support; inappropriate support
• Many errors in sentence structure
• Frequent errors in diction
• Many errors in grammar and other language usage
An essay that receives a 1 will have the following characteristics:
• Incompetence
• Serious flaws throughout
• Very poor addressing of the topic
• Extremely insufficient organization
• Very inappropriate or insufficient support
• Serious errors in sentence structure
• Many errors in diction that affect understanding
• Errors in grammar and other language usage that cloud
meaning
An essay receives a zero (0) if the writer did not write on the
assigned topic. However, there is no penalty for an incomplete essay.
But you do have to write enough to demonstrate your writing skills.
PLANNING YOUR TIME
What does all this mean? It means that you need to do some planning
and practicing in order to do well on test day. The best way to write
a good essay in 20 minutes is to write many essays within that time
constraint. In other words, you must practice, practice, practice.
Since you have only 20 minutes to write your essay, you cannot
spend 15 minutes planning and 5 minutes composing. When you
practice, take only 20 minutes to plan, write, and edit your essays.
Use the following timetable to help you develop a schedule that

works for you.
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Prewriting
• Allow 2–4 minutes for this step.
• Read and study the question in detail.
• Jot down ideas, facts, and examples.
• Develop your thesis.
• Order your ideas in a logical pattern to support your thesis.
Writing
• Allow approximately 12–16 minutes to shape your essay.
• Write your essay following the pattern you determined
during the prewriting stage.
• Develop the ideas that support your thesis fully.
• Compose your paragraphs so that each one develops a
single point.
• Choose effective words.
• Include transitional words and phrases to unify your work.
Revising and Editing
• Set aside 2–4 minutes for revising, editing, and
proofreading.
• Revise for sense, making sure that everything you included
helps achieve your purpose.
• Edit so that every word says what you mean.
• Revise sentences for clarity and variety.
• Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
By planning before you start writing, you can be confident that your
clear, coherent, unified—and neatly written—essay will shine in each
scorer’s pile of vague, incoherent, fragmented, and illegible essays.

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CHECK YOUR WRITING SKILLS
How does your writing right now measure up against the characteris-
tics readers use to score your essay? Find the most recent piece of
writing that you did for a class.
• Evaluate it against each of the six levels on the rubric given below.
• Write the number of the level that best indicates each aspect of
your writing. For example, if you used a mix of sentence structures
throughout your piece, give it a 6.
Title/topic of writing:
SELF-EVALUATION
Each category is rated 6 (high) to 1 (low)
Overall Impression
Thesis and Purpose
Organization and Development
Use of Sentences
Word Choice
Grammar and Usage
TOTAL
Divide by 6 for final score
How did you do? Where could your writing use some improvement?
Organization? Statement of your thesis? Word choice? Begin your list
for review by writing down those areas you want to work on.
WRITING AS THE ONLY PREPARATION
There is no way to prepare for the SAT I Writing test except by
writing. After all, you cannot choose a topic and prepare a well-
researched, well-organized, and clearly expressed essay ahead of time.
You don’t know the topic ahead of time. What you do know is that

the writing prompt will require you to take a stand on an issue and
support it with evidence. The only way to become skilled at this kind
of writing is to practice. “Practice makes perfect,” as the old saying
goes. Continue on to Chapter 2 to begin practicing dissecting writing
prompts.
CHAPTER 1: ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE SAT I
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PRACTICAL ADVICE
As you begin to practice for the essay, keep the following strategies
in mind:
• Make sure that your essay is long enough to demonstrate your
writing skills.
• Write approximately 200 to 250 words and more than one para-
graph to ensure that your essay is well-developed.
• Write about the given prompt only.
• Write legibly.
CHECK OFF
Before you go on to the next chapter, can you
• Repeat the basic information about the writing section on the
SAT I?
• List the characteristics that readers will be looking for as they score
SAT I essays?
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Chapter 2
DISSECTING THE WRITING PROMPT
Your goals for this chapter are to
• Learn how to determine what you are being asked to write about

• Practice pulling apart writing prompts to understand them
• Practice thinking of examples to use to support your opinion
The essay section of the writing test consists of a set of directions, a
writing prompt or assignment, and blank lines. Your “assignment” is
to fill in the blank lines with a coherent, unified, and interesting
piece of writing that answers the question posed.
The typical format for the writing prompt will look much like
the following:
Directions: Think carefully about the issue described in the excerpt
below and about the assignment that follows it.
The role of advertising is to induce people to buy goods and services.
Advertising is neither moral nor immoral. It is ethically neutral.
Assignment: What is your opinion of the idea that considerations of
morality have no place in advertising? Plan and write an essay that
develops your point of view on the issue. Support your opinion with
reasoning and examples from your reading, your classwork, your
personal experiences, or your observations.
THE DIRECTIONS
The directions are brief and straightforward.
Directions: Think carefully about the issue described in the
excerpt below and about the assignment that follows it.
That seems simple enough. All you have to do is read the excerpt,
read the assignment, and start writing. Wrong! The directions say
“think carefully about the issue.” Ok, you say, you’ve read the
excerpt—twice. Now, you can write. Wrong!
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Before you tackle writing your essay or even planning it, you
need to be sure that you know what the writing prompt—the
excerpt and the assignment—is really asking you to write about. You
have to dissect the prompt to decide what to write.

THE WRITING PROMPT
Topics for writing prompts tend to be broad, open-ended, and
adaptable enough for any test-taker to find something to write about.
Remember that you will not need any specific subject matter knowl-
edge to answer the question. The excerpt in this sample is a typical
example.
The role of advertising is to induce people to buy goods and
services. Advertising is neither moral nor immoral. It is ethically
neutral.
The writing prompt will most likely be based on a statement or a
quotation. In order to answer the question that follows, you must
understand what the excerpt is about. However, if you can’t figure
out the meaning or aren’t sure, don’t worry. The test-writers tell you
the issue in the assignment.
However, don’t ignore the excerpt. You may find some phrases
that you can use in your essay. Referring back to the excerpt by
paraphrasing it or using some words from it can be an effective
technique. For example, “Unlike the author, I do not think that
advertising is ethically neutral” or “The purpose of advertising may be
to get people to buy things, but ”arestrong essay openers. After
you read the assignment, reread the excerpt. Underline any key
words or phrases that you might want to use in your essay.
THE ASSIGNMENT
The assignment gives you the issue, or point, of the excerpt. It also
tells you what you need to write about.
Assignment: What is your opinion of the idea that considerations of
morality have no place in advertising? Plan and write an essay that
develops your point of view on the issue. Support your opinion with
reasoning and examples from your reading, your classwork, your
personal experiences, or your observations.

This assignment has multiple parts:
1. What is your opinion of the idea that considerations of morality
have no place in advertising?
“What is your opinion of the idea” is the question that you have
to answer. “Considerations of morality have no place in advertis-
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ing” is the issue, or point, of the excerpt. By asking you to give
your opinion, the test-writers are telling you to write a persua-
sive essay.
2. Plan and write an essay that develops your point of view on the
issue.
The phrase your point of view is another clue that you are to
write a persuasive essay. Note that the assignment tells you to
“plan and write.” It doesn’t say just “write.” Because your time is
limited, you won’t be able to outline your ideas. But you should
jot down ideas and number them in logical order. With a plan,
your essay is guaranteed to be clearer and more logically
organized than if you just begin to write without a plan. Chap-
ters 3 and 4 will help you with the planning part of your essay
writing.
3. Support your opinion with reasoning and examples from your
reading, your class work, your personal experiences, or your
observations.
The last part of the assignment tells you that you need to
support your opinion with reasoning and examples. By reason-
ing, the test-writers mean you need to develop a logical and
well-thought-out piece of writing. You are also told that you
need evidence in the form of examples to defend your point, or

support your position. That evidence may come from
• Reading you have done for personal enjoyment or personal
education
• Information you have learned in classes you have taken—from
music and art to science and technology
• Personal experiences such as family relationships, friendships, jobs,
and extracurricular activities
• Personal observations of self, family, friends, classmates, neighbors,
and customers or employers in jobs that you have held
CHAPTER 2: DISSECTING THE WRITING PROMPT
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